Breakdown of Stjórinn þarf líka að lesa samninginn hans.
að
to (infinitive marker)
lesa
to read
þurfa
to need
hans
his
líka
also
stjórinn
the boss
samningurinn
the contract
Questions & Answers about Stjórinn þarf líka að lesa samninginn hans.
Why does the sentence use hans instead of sinn?
This is the key difference between these two words! If the sentence used sinn (as in samninginn sinn), it would mean the boss is reading his own contract. Because it uses hans, it means the boss is reading someone else's contract (for example, an employee's contract).
samninginn means "the contract", so why do we say "the contract his"?
In Icelandic, when you use a possessive pronoun like hans, hennar, or sinn after a noun, that noun almost always needs the definite article attached to it. It sounds backwards in English, but saying "the-contract his" (samninginn hans) is the completely normal way to say this in Icelandic.
Why is the word for contract spelled samninginn instead of samningurinn?
This happens because of the verb lesa (to read), which forces the thing being read into the accusative case. The basic dictionary form with the "the" attached is samningurinn, but in the accusative case it changes to samninginn.
Why do we need the word að before lesa?
The verb þurfa (to need) works a lot like it does in English. When you want to say you "need to" do an action, you use að followed by the dictionary form (infinitive) of the second verb. So þarf að lesa directly translates to "needs to read".
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